Okay, we are now officially into the exciting New Year of 2016. If
you are like more than 52 percent of all Americans, you made yourself at
least a few New Year’s Resolutions. Likewise, if you are like most of
those who make such resolutions, you have already broken 36 percent of them. (It is somewhat encouraging that at least some of those promises will be kept by 46 percent of individuals past six months.)

The Stuff of Dreams and Aspirations

Researchers
and academics have long studied dreams, aspirations, and yes,
resolutions, to determine what role they play in our future development
and success. While many people make fun of such resolutions, (we’re told
at least 38 percent of us never make any such promises for the New
Year), it is a surprising fact that people who make resolutions are
shown to be ten times more likely to achieve their goals than those who
don’t believe in setting such goals.

In which group do you find
yourself? Interestingly, many different studies show we all share some
common goals for ourselves, whether we do or do not believe in
resolutions. Those common aspirations include:

Getting in shape, losing weight and staying more healthy

Saving more and spending less

Getting organized

Learning something new

Stopping smoking

As
you can see, these fit into the general categories of health,
self-improvement, and money discipline. That’s a pretty encouraging
reality as it shows we all pretty much want to be better at doing better
and living better.

Poking Fun at a Serious Concept

As
part of our human nature, we seem to need to make the idea of doing
better a subject of humor. That helps us take a serious subject and deal
with it in a light-hearted manner. After all, isn’t it better to say,
“I’m going to lose some weight” instead of “Geez, I’ve gotten fat all of
a sudden.” Or, perhaps, “I’m going to get better organized,” rather
than “I can’t live in the middle of all this trash and disorder any
longer.”

Yep, we never want to be seen as taking ourselves too
seriously, even if there is some real value in the changes we need and
want to make. That is the root justification behind such jokes as:

My New Year’s Resolution seems to go in one year and out the other…

Always remember you can reset your resolutions on January 14 (Orthodox New Year’s) and February 8th. After that, you’re on your own.

This year I’m going to resolve to break my New Year’s Resolutions, that way I can’t lose!

The
advent of social media has also made the New Year a favorite time to
post tweets and posts that make you smile, such as this tweet: “Just a
few more days til I can cross off "Don't die" from my 2014 #NewYearsResolution. Hopefully it goes better than my others.”

Just
remember, part of the battle is deciding you want to change. Even if
you slip, a solid New Year’s resolution can be a great first step to
ending this year well ahead of where you started it.